Fifteen thousand dollars. Right on the line between fortunate and funked. Not crippling, not great, but manageable. Manageable enough, even, it almost excludes me from joining my peers in complaining about student loans. This displeases me.

Anyone who’s ever been on a sports team or residence life staff with me knows I love nothing more than complaining with peers. So, to secure my right to whine, I’m going to make my student loans unmanageable; starting today I’m going to pay off my loans in one year.

I’m going to try, at least.

DA BACKGROUND

Loans — student loans especially — are not fun. The payback period kicks in soon after graduation, right when bank accounts are hurting and job prospects are paining. And to make it all worse, that Sallie Mae is a real lady of the night. SHE A GREAT BIG HO. Or maybe she is, I don’t know.

Thing is, I’m not smart enough to figure out if my lenders are taking advantage of me. Or rather, I’m not patient enough. Finding out all that variable interest rate hooblah dooblah and loan fee goobleygook seems like it requires a lot of clicking and maybe even some phone calls, and homie don’t play dat. Plus, I figure if I sought out the bank, requested the loan, and signed the contract, it’s my own fault if I didn’t read the fine print. Hecks I barely read the bold print.

In total, that’s about $15,600 in debt. I have a full-time job, a part-time job, and two generous roommates named Mammy and Pappy. Paying off my debt by next February may be improbable, but it’s not impossible.

DA PLAN

Da plan isn’t very complicated. I’m going to work a lot, live frugally, and pay off as much as I can each month.

WORK & GIGGLE LIKE A BOSS: I will work my regular job, do data entry on the side, and pick up any random gigs I can get.

LIVE LIKE A NUTSACK: I will do my best to make my own crap instead of buying crap from stores. For instance if I need a container for nuts, I’ll sew a handmade nut sack out of an old T-shirt. Or if I need a new toilet brush, I’ll make one out of household items — a broken shelf and toilet paper, perhaps.

I’ve done it before

BLEND AND BLADE BARELY: Other than gas, food, and presents for gift-giving occasions, all my money will go toward paying off my loans. Although I’m really into blending lately, so some of it might go toward a nice blender. For the most part it’ll just be student loans, though. Also maybe a pair of rollerblades. They look fun, don’t they?

Wish me luck!

P.S. I’ve never cared much about achieving personal goals, so if this sucks too much I’m probably going to quit. I’ll try not to, but know it might happen. Fair warning.

“Four years of college and I still don’t understand how mirrors work” << Probably one of the funniest things I've read today (and I'm catching up on two months of posts from all the blogs I follow…)

I wish I could have lived at home and done this (and started substantial savings, too) after I got out of school. Pesky teenaged pregnancy gets in the way of that I guess, so I'm just living the good ol' fashioned way: paycheck-to-paycheck with credit cards and student loans. Yucko! Best of luck with your goal!